OnlineNigeria News: City near full complement after injury woes
City near full complement after injury woes
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Staff on 12/11/2012 02:53:00
Manchester City assistant David Platt believes the club's injury problems are
easing and says manager Roberto Mancini could have almost a full squad at his
disposal for Saturday's game against Aston Villa.
GettyImagesDavid Silva returned to first-team action for Man City against
Tottenham
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The Premier League champions have been without up to six players during a spell
when teenagers Abdul Razak, George Evans and Courtney Meppen-Walters have all
been on the bench.
But David Silva and Maicon made their comebacks in Sunday's 2-1 win over
Tottenham and Platt is optimistic that Joleon Lescott, Jack Rodwell, James
Milner and the ill Samir Nasri could all be available to face Paul Lambert's
side.
"Slowly but surely, people are coming back," Platt said. "It was great to see
David Silva getting 90 minutes in.
"Joleon has only had a couple of days' training sessions. Samir was ill and he
had a couple of days in bed so he hasn't trained either.
"Hopefully by next week you would think that certainly Joleon will be back in
contention, Jack Rodwell will be a lot closer and Samir obviously [will be
back]. To all intents and purposes, we have got a good chance of having a full
complement next week."
Defender Lescott has had a back injury while Rodwell has been sidelined by a
hamstring problem sustained playing for England Under-21s last month. Milner is
another with hamstring difficulties, as was Silva before his return on Sunday.
Left-back Gael Clichy is also likely to be available, with Platt adding: "Gael
Clichy has a problem with his back and is going to have an injection so
hopefully we can recuperate him."
If all recover, it would leave the long-term absentee Micah Richards, who has a
knee problem, as the only player who would not be in contention.